Monday Mentions: Frog Mouth Links & More!

Monday Mentions is the mash-up-day of all the neato-torpedo links and blogs and writer-icity crappiocca collected over the past week. This past weekend I’ve managed to finish four new puppy articles, edit/upload six new Ask Amy videos for future blogs, and edit several more fiction chapters. Whew!

I’m trying to get a weeeeee bit caught up or even ahead of the game. November will be busy, as I’m sure it is for many folks, with Thanksgiving around the corner. I’m also prepping for the Cat Writers’ Association annual conference week after next, and will present the Shojai Mentor Award at the banquet. The night before, though, I partner with Susan Logan, editor of Cat Fancy Magazine, as the entertainment for the event. Yes, we’ll be caterwauling, yodeling, or otherwise meowing our way through a few kitty tunes. I understand there will be video (yikes!) so I’ll do my best not to embarrass the fur-kids.

Lots of fun links today, in no particular order. Except that photo (above) I just had to swipe share from a very kewl blog. Tawny Frog Mouth from Rayya the Vet’s wonderful blog, you must check out the VIDEO of this hungry baby–priceless!

Jessica O’Neal “The Sexy Little Nerd” blog demonstrates the spirit of the best of blog-icity with her Paying It Forward post. Love the design, too–oh, and she’s got a JRT! Well worth checking out her blog!

My friend and colleague, brilliant writer Dr. Deb Eldredge, recently had some heartbreaking challenges in her doggy family–but the new kid–named Babe–is sure to put smiles on faces. She gave me permission to share the new pup’s first encounter with that (gasp!) other puppy in the mirror. Enjoy!

THANKS!

This month as a special “thank you” to all my furry-fantastic-followers, I’ll give away a paw-tographed copy of Complete Care for Your Aging Cat and Complete Care for Your Aging Dog. To get in the running, simply post a comment in the blog about your special pet (old fogey or not) and I’ll draw two names at the end of the month. You can use these award-winning updated books as a resource for yourself or wrap up for a pet-friendly holiday gift to a fur-loving friend. And as an EXTRA-special incentive–and to encourage all of y’all to mentor each other and spread the blogging/twitter/Facebook love–the two winners get to name one purr-son who gives them wags of support and deserves a book, too!

#AskAmy Sweet Tweets

Folks who “follow” me on Twitter are the most awesome Sweet Tweets around–they love #cats and #dogs and #pets, many #amwriting. We’ve become a great community including those in the #MyWANA social network twibe hosted by the awesome @KristenLambTX. So I’m stealing borrowing Kristen’s methods and creating my own hashtag. Just follow and include the #AskAmy in your tweets if’n you’re interested in pithy links to articles, books, blogs, experts, fictioning and sparkle-icity!

Fabulous line-up and I am off to read a bunch today. Love it!! And now I sooooo want a puppy!
You already know about Tess and her aging (and the new knee) so I won’t go back into that again but…this weekend we found a lump on her hip. It’s high – like sort of on her back but close to her tail. Sniff. I am sure it’s just a fatty cyst – she’s had a few over her lifetime but with her aging, the surgery etc – I am definitely more worried than usual. We are off to see the vet tomorrow to get it looked at and to talk about her overall lessening of energy. It may be time to think about arthritis medication on a more regular basis?!?! we’ll see. Although we are getting in our daily walks and that seems to help. The more she moves, the better she seems to feel. Tough watching your baby age…sniff…
Now off to read your line-up! Cheers!

Thanks for the tissue alert for the Writers In The Storm post. Wonderful story but definitely a weepfest.
Loved, loved, loved the tawny frog mouth!
Now that we know about this …”Yes, we’ll be caterwauling, yodeling, or otherwise meowing our way through a few kitty tunes. I understand there will be video (yikes!) so I’ll do my best not to embarrass the fur-kids.” We will all be awaiting a video clip here. Ya gotta do it!